THORChain refuses to block assets tied to Bitget hackers

THORChain refuses to block assets tied to hackers who stole $387.5 million from Bitget. Hackers stole the money on September 24. Part of the assets is being converted into Bitcoin through THORChain. THORChain allows cross-chain swaps without identity checks. Once the assets become Bitcoin, no company can freeze them. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen asked THORChain to refuse the publicly tracked wallets. Chen said decentralization should not facilitate known stolen funds. MistTrack says nearly $1.2 billion was reportedly traced through THORChain after the $1.46 billion Bybit hack last year. THORChain says it is permissionless and open to anyone. THORChain compares its model with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB Chain. THORChain asked what responsibility those networks should bear for handling known stolen funds. Star Xu, founder of rival exchange OKX, called the Bitcoin comparison false. THORChain's own report says the network paused a vault after roughly $10 million was drained in May. Xu said this showed that THORChain was not like Bitcoin. Nodes rapidly halted THORChain after a 2021 hack. In January 2025, nodes voted to freeze its lending and savings products. North Korea used THORChain to move over $1 billion from Bybit. Researchers and Bybit traced most of the February 2025 attack through THORChain. Lazarus Group converted the funds into Bitcoin. Bitget says its $464 million protection fund covers every customer. Withdrawals restart Monday. Bitcoin withdrawals start at 8:00 UTC. Chen says North Korea was very likely behind the attack. Bitget is offering a 5% bounty for help freezing the funds. THORChain has not blocked the flagged wallets. RUNE is up by over 20% in the last 24 hours.